Puzzles or games utilizing a board having slots or pads positioned upon it and equipped for movement of buttons, markers or discs in these slots in order to achieve different results and patterns are old in the art. They differ primarily in the patterns used for the slots and the method of moving of the discs in order to achieve different results and solutions.
Thus, U.S. Pat. No. 631,737 to Compton and Houck utilizes a board with the slots in the form of a triangle with one projecting end, the object being to move the discs within the slots so that those of similar colors and up together and those bearing stars appear at the vertices of the triangle.
U.S. Pat. No. 642,374 to Shaffer utilizes a board having a single horizontal slot connecting with two V-shaped slots. The buttons or discs bear letters and are moved with respect to each other along the horizontal slot with the aid of the connecting T-slots in order to spell out a given word along the horizontal slot.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,257,205 to Fallace utilizes slots in the form of a star and nine discs with a central circular slot connecting to the star shaped box. The nine discs are moved around the slots in the star elements and into the circular slot. The discs or buttons are colored red, white and blue and the object is to move all discs into the center circular slot in the order of red, white and blue representing the colors of the American flag.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,336,541 to Shepherd utilizes criss-crossing slots and numbered discs from one to twelve. The discs are moved so that the sum total of the numbers in each individual slot, numbering four, total up to twenty-six.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,349,456 to Hlasko utilizes a T-shaped slot with methods of controlling the movement of the different sized movable elements or discs, the object being to arrange the buttons or discs in a predetermined numerical order with respect to each other.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,637,602 to Chandler uses a horizontal slot with a series of pockets connecting thereto. The object is to move the discs, each of which bears a letter, along the horizontal slot and in and out of the pockets to arrange them in an order which spells out a given word after they all have been placed in an individual slot.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,148,884 to Steinhardt utilizes a series of intersecting slots of different lengths. The discs which slide in the slots are numbered and must be arranged so that finally they are in numerical sequence.
In most of the prior art the movable discs are spool shaped with a narrow center section and two cylindrical outer sections which hold the discs in the slots on the board and prevent their falling out during the progress of the game. Most of the puzzles are relatively simple and do not require a great deal of concentration for their solution.